Patagonia.
Patagonia.
Patagonia is a magical place.
I arrived in Puerto Natales after almost 40 hours of travel via bus. It was dark and so I decided to take a cab from the bus station to my hostel and just head to bed because sitting for 40 hours is surprisingly exhausting My friends Birte and Kiki were also arriving that night and we had plans to meet up the next day. My hostel was ok, I actually ended up changing to a great hostel after a few days. The biggest problem was it didn't have a kitchen and restaurants are limited and expensive in Puerot Natales, however the hostel hat Kiki and Birte had booked was just as odd and it too didn't have a kitchen for personal use, so the three of us decided to have a picnic dinner down by the water that night after exploring the town and buying our bus tickets for Torres Del Paine for the next day. 
My picnic
Mirador de los Torres was the first day hike we took in TDP it's the classic must do as it takes you to the towers which the park is named for and it is beautiful. However, the hike was 9km which originally I thought was a nice short distance to hike on day 1. Patagonia is also known for "Patagonia flats" meaning that you may be walking up and down 100s of meters at a time but overall not actually gaining any elevation it is exhausting on the knees. The hike though winds through cliffs and waterfalls and climbing over boulders to get to the top. My German friends were great for hiking with, and we brought lots of snacks, water and changes of clothes. One second it was sweltering and sunny and we were hiking in only sports bras, the next the Patagonia wind was so strong we had to hold on to the face of the cliff and the next it was snowing. It was bout half the way up the hike that it dawned on me that if the hike is 9km to the top, it was actually 18km in total, not including the 2km beginning. This was a bit disappointing as I was dying from the short distance and slight elevation we had completed. There was also a time limit because we had been told that the last shuttle from the end of the hike to the bus lot in the park left at 6pm. By the time we finally made it to the end it was 6:30pm. However it was just our luck that another company offered to drive us over so we thankfully did not miss the bus back to Puerto Natales. Overall the hike was incredible though and the views were absolutely worth it. 
We made it!
Just a few moments later it started raining and hailing on us
The hike was deserted unlike Mirador de los Torres and it was so peaceful and beautiful. It starts by going past a set of water falls and rapids then followed by a very narrow trail to panoramic view of the backside of the towers. The water has such a blue color and the glaciers and rest of it all contrast in ways that just can't be captured in photos. I wish I could explain what our moment was like but I don't know how, I wish I had poetic skills or something but it was just the most amazing, relaxing and feeling I have ever had. We had our lunch in the sun and napped with some white wine and appreciated the silence and privacy as well. We spent hours there laying there in the sun and enjoying the unbelievable views in front of us.
However we had anticipated to spend only about half the day in the park and then take the 1:30pm bus back to town, we woke up from our naps around 3pm so we ended up taking the 7:30pm tour back to Puerto Natales. However, the best laid plans don't always work out and so while we were waiting for our bus it didn't show up until almost 8pm, and out hike started from where the catamaran takes hikers/visitors to see glacier grey meaning that anyone who headed out on the catamaran also took the our bus back to the bus lot. The catamaran was running in the morning but due to the high wind in the afternoon they were delayed until much later, and so most of the visitors were stranded on the other side of the lake. Our bus was the only bus that decided to wait for the last passengers because it is illegal to stay in the park over night with out a reservation. This means that not until around 10:30pm did we head back to the park entrance and got the privilege of eating Pringles and beer for dinner as that was all the convineience store was selling.
Asleep in the sun (me and Birte)
The waterfalls
The first day Kiki, Birte and I has tried to go for a 5km "hike" around Puerto Natales that their hostel and told them about, however we quickly learned that we needed to ask more specific questions. The number of times we asked how far the walk would be, everyone informed us that it would be 5km long. This turned out to mean it was about 5km out of town, 5km to the trail head after that, 5km up the mountain, and 5km back making it almost 30 km in total. This was not what we had expected when we were told it was a "short walk". We had no water or food with us. We decided to attempt the "mountain" as it is dubbed by the locals on our day in between the two TDP hikes. We took a Taxi to the start and back to the town which made it much more enjoyable as well brought water and food with us.
The mountain was so cool, however if wind gods exist then let me tell you they were angry. It was so windy up there that I was physically pushed against a metal fence and could not move until the wind died down. But you could see so far form the view.
